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BIC Beam Box FM-10 tuner calibration?

ethangsmith

ethangsmith

Well-Known Member
Just picked up a BIC Beam Box to play with. While the "tuning" dial does affect signal strength on FM stations being received, it seems like it's not right. When tuning to 96.1, I found the best signal strength is achieved when the dial is turned to almost 108. The wide/narrow bandwidth and directional buttons seems to function as normal. I know there's a small tuner inside the unit, can it be calibrated so the Tuning dial achieves max signal strength at the proper spot? Or is it more of a "Turn the dial to where ever it gets max strength and leave it." ?
 
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My FM-8 is similar so, ill be watching this thread. Make sure the 2 switches (wide/ narrow and direction) are de-oxited AND, the variable tuner's cap, just like a normal tuner. This is a great indoor antenna, under the radar, it seems.
 
Yea, I definitely need to get the bottom off mine and hit some stuff with Deoxit and the tuner with a cleaner. So far it works great on my Kenwood KT-8300, however it works terribly on my Pioneer SX-737. I get better reception with a dipole on the 737 but better reception on the 8300 with the Beam Box. Weird.
 
I agree. All of my Kenwood tuners are much more sensitive and can pick up a lot more stations than any of my Pioneers or Sansuis.
 
ethangsmith said:
... Or is it more of a "Turn the dial to where ever it gets max strength and leave it." ?
Click to expand...
Pretty much. It's a passive device. However, there are 2 blue trimmers on the varicap, the only adjustment points. Play as you may like, but mark the starting setting in case it goes south after tweaking. Ymmv, of course. Clean the switches, since there's no actual current flow through the contacts, a little bit of oxidation or film will degrade functions considerably. These antennas are a good-looking compromise for more elaborate ones, don't expect reception miracles. They are fine in metro areas with crowded dials as they can be "focused" to an extent to reject adjacent-station interference. Just my long-time experience with mine. Great for troubleshooting or temporary systems, as in outdoor set-ups (although who would want to listen to radio as party music?:biggrin:)
 
You need proper rf equipment to calibrate this. You need to be able to connect an rf generator to the input and check the gain at the output with a spectrum analyzer, network analyzer or a scope with an rf detector probe.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll Deoxit the switches and maybe I'll leave the tuner alone for now. It's weird how it works terribly on my Pioneer but works amazingly well on the Kenwood. Then again, I've never been very impressed with the tuners in my Pioneers.
 
I bought a BIC FM-10 Beam Box last year - mostly because I was always curious about them, and how they performed.

I hooked it up to a couple of NAD tuners, in different parts of my house, and confirmed that it worked. And yes, there could be an "offset" between indicated station frequency and FM-10 setting that gave the strongest / best signal.

Since I'm not anywhere near a high multipath area, I could not verify what is its greatest claim to fame. In the end the audible performance was no better than when using a simple $10 dipole antenna. Then again the tuner sections that I connected it to (NAD 4155 tuner and NAD 7155 receiver) are pretty incredible in their own right, and work great with just a dipole anyhow.

I can imagine a case where I might set up a receiver / tuner in a location where I don't want to pin up a dipole. That's when the FM-10 will come out of storage.

By the way, I found some very interesting trade pub reviews of the FM-10 in High Fidelity (p. 51), Popular Mechanics (p. 80), and Radio-Electronics (p. 66).

Jeff
 
Very good! I have one that I use for temporary use & troubleshooting /testing of rcvrs/tuners. I'd not be too concerned about perceived difference in tuner vs. beam box dial settings, as long as it functions as designed. Best thing about the beam box is the ability to switch between the mini-dipoles inside for focusing, which sure beats moving an external antenna around, especially if it's a t-configured 300 ohm twin-lead affair tacked to the wall. It's a versatile piece of gear which actually doesn't look bad, either, my opinion.
 
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